Mets Starter Shaun Marcum To Have Season-Ending Surgery

Related Tags:

SAN FRANCISCO (CBSNewYork/AP) – New York Mets right-hander Shaun Marcum will have season-ending surgery on his pitching shoulder next week.

WFAN’s Ed Coleman first reported that Marcum was done for the year.

Marcum felt tingling and numbness in his right hand during a 7-6 loss at Milwaukee on Saturday night, when he allowed 11 hits and five runs in five innings. He had experienced similar symptoms in his previous start and during spring training, and had an MRI last week.

Marcum met with a hand specialist this week in St. Louis, where he will have surgery Monday. The operation will be performed by Dr. Robert Thompson, who repaired a clot and damaged artery in teammate Dillon Gee’s shoulder last summer.

Mets assistant general manager John Ricco said Marcum was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet syndrome, a condition that involves the compression of nerves near the neck.

“This is something that unfortunately we’ve seen a few pitchers in the industry have over the last few years,” Ricco said. “It was affecting his ability to grip the ball.”

The 31-year-old Marcum is 1-10 with a 5.29 ERA in 14 games (12 starts). He signed a $4 million, one-year contract with New York last winter that included a chance to make another $4 million in bonuses.

“What they’ve told us is he may be able to begin throwing in a couple of months,” Ricco said. “That would put him in early September. I don’t think there would be enough time for him to get back to the big leagues.”

Carlos Torres will replace Marcum in the rotation for now, and right-hander Gonzalez Germen was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas. Germen was 3-3 with a 5.52 ERA for Las Vegas.

“We’re all ready to go no matter what you ask us to do,” Torres said, according to the Mets’ official website.